On Thursday 14th June, Norwich School held a special day raising awareness of dementia, alongside a Norwich based social enterprise Friend in Deed. In the morning Mrs Hill and founder of Friend in Deed, Kelly Lindsay, gave an assembly in the Cathedral to let the school know about the day.
Mrs Hill:
"We are all getting older.
Just this week, in the maths department, Mr Peters, Mr Joel and I all celebrated our birthdays. Last week Mr Clark celebrated his. Put your hand up if your birthday is in June? Now put your hand up if you are older today than you were yesterday? Yes, hopefully all of us can claim that one.
On Tuesday, my Father in Law, Donald Hill, celebrated being 92 - the same age as the Queen. He is an incredible man - so full of life, a great sense of humour -he’s always making other people smile! But 5 years ago he was diagnosed with not just one, but two types of Dementia. Your knowledge of what it’s like to live with Dementia will vary - I’m sure some of you would be able to teach me lots about what to expect in my Father-in-Laws next 5 years but I imagine others of you know very little, as I did 5 years ago.
To help us as a community, understand it better still, we are very lucky to be joined this morning by Kelly Lindsay - founder and director of a Norwich based Social Enterprise called Friend In Deed. She is working hard across all generations to help us live happier lives. I am personally grateful that Donald is fortunate enough to benefit from some of her most recent intergenerational work which I’m sure she will talk to us about today.
But just before I hand over to Kelly - please can I remind everyone that we are having two cake sales at break today - one for pupils in the quiet playground and one for parents in the Crypt.
Do come along and support us. Today we are not only learning about Dementia and having the opportunity to become Dementia Friends but we are also raising money for Alzheimer’s Society - as Miss Wyndham kindly mentioned in her assembly last month, in September my husband and I will be running in the Berlin marathon to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society - a charity who help those like Donald living with Dementia. Today will help add that little bit more to our fundraising pot and you can help us with that challenge by coming along to buy a cake - thank you to all those of you who have been busy baking too! Especially the Peer Supporters and Miss Cook!
Over to Kelly..."
Kelly Lindsay:
"Good morning everyone, thank you for that introduction Mrs Hill.
My name is Kelly Lindsay and I am the Founder/Director of Friend in Deed, a social enterprise that helps create friendships across the generations by bringing different age groups together. The primary reason I am here today is because I also volunteer for the Alzheimer's Society as a Dementia champion, and it is wonderful to be here on their cupcake, fundraising day. The Alzheimer's society are doing fantastic work to raise awareness about Alzheimer's and other forms of Dementia, help people live well with dementia, campaign for change and fund research to try and find a cure. There is currently no cure for dementia and most people in this room, if not already, will be affected directly or indirectly in the future. I will be running two dementia friends sessions today and I would be happy to return to Norwich School to help create more dementia friends.
Friend in Deed works with various care facilities for older people including; care homes, sheltered housing, day centres and dementia cafes. My organisation regularly comes into contact with people living with dementia and we help support these people by offering meaningful activities with people and children from our communities. We have collaborated with Norwich schools on some recent projects, including a music project and I would like to thank the students that participated in that project once again. We are currently starting a poetry project which involves students being teamed up with an older person in a care facility to write a poem about kindness and hopefully you will already be aware that on Friday 27th July, which is Norfolk day, we are planning to host an intergenerational sports day and Norwich school and I hope that many of you will sign up to get involved as a participant or volunteer. We consider it a great privilege to work with Norwich School and as a previous PE teacher, I am fully aware how sports and other activities can bring people together.
Friend in Deed has over 120 babies, toddlers and children of all ages visiting older people in Norfolk and we hope that some of you would like to join our 'little visitors' team.
Thank you for listening, I hope you have a lovely day and that you enjoy your cupcakes!"
